Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

misskool

i went outside, it was a mistake.

dwarf beans either damaged by wind or chomped to death by slugs. or both.

tomatoes looking windswept, I straightened a few and snapped a few off. Enough rain and wind already please.

Sweetcorn turning yellow as it'\s cold and windy (can't blame them)

Courgettes sulking.

RedLass

Two dry days and some overdue jobs done. Now starting to spit with rain, nothing heavy yet though.

"Grass" cut front and back, general weeding, fresh seeds sown in gaps that didn't appear to have germinated. Also sown two types of beetroot and saw half price onion sets at the garden centre so took a punt and put them in the ground. Not expecting anything to come of them, but will be a pleasant bonus if they do.

Finally cleared our little patio of the blue sheet and clay-mountain that came out of the bed. Been there for about 4 months now. Two thirds of it went into two large tubs on the patio with the last half bag of compost - one currently unplannted, one with some borage seeds in (not sure I fancy it's chances but again, giving it a go). They're by a fence which casts shade all day so might instead need to plant something that likes it that way... and that likes clay... The rest is in a flexi-tub in the shed while I work out what to do with it or how to get rid of it.

Lastly, erected cat-proofing around all the seeds/seedlings. Hope it works!

annie123

Gosh Redlass that looks far too tidy!
It's tipping down again, and looking at raintoday it will be getting heavier, maybe I should get little umbrellas for my veg )

emiff6

Hello all, been offline a while. Is this a new game? Does the one that gets closest win a prize?

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Of course he is. He's only 52, still growing up, poor lamb.

aliasojo wrote: »

I actually thought he was 47!

annie123 wrote: »

Lets say he's 21 again shell we? and give him the benefit of the doubt;)

I'll go for 44

Drea

Oh look, it's been raining all day again! At least there's no wind this time

My in-laws have got a friend who is happy to give me three of his tomato plants since mine got destroyed we're going to buy some strawberry plants from a garden centre to replace mine which were also destroyed. And I'm going to buy radish and beetroot seeds and give them a bash! Feeling a bit more positive now!

RedLass

annie123 wrote: »

Gosh Redlass that looks far too tidy!
It's tipping down again, and looking at raintoday it will be getting heavier, maybe I should get little umbrellas for my veg )

Yes I will be pulling my hair out when it all starts growing to different heights

Have a great image in my mind of lots of little plants with oversized cocktail drink style umbrellas staked into the ground. You could start a trend!

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Where's MBE this weekend? not out drinking/hungover AGAIN I hope!

Gardening, of course!

I went out yesterday to Shropshire Sarracenia's open day, where I picked up some Venus Fly Traps, Sarracenia, Drosera and Darlingtonia for my bog barrel. I managed to spend £60 on plants. :eek:

Today I got the barrel about finished, with the exception of the planting, as most of the plants will need some hardening off and the forecast for the next fortnight is shocking.

The barrel is filled with a mixture of 50% peat, 25% perlite and 25% horticultural grade sharp sand:



The sarracenias are quite high, so will need some sheltering from the wind. I found a 3m long bamboo screen in Wilkinsons, chopped a metre off it and fixed it to the barrel. That gives me enough left over to replace it twice. Hopefully, it will let enough wind through that it won't be destroyed, but will provide enough break to shelter the plants.



Here's one of the sarracenias I bought, so you can see what I mean. I'll keep the other plants under my hat until the whole thing is complete. I think it's going to look great.



I am going to net the finished article for two reasons - to stop the birds wrecking it, and to stop the plants eating bees. I've got a mesh that's just about the right size - flies will be able to get in, but bees will struggle.

mrbadexample

Last two days have been dry, so took the opportunity to get plenty done. With the aid of a willing assistant, this weekend I have:

Planted out the runner beans, squash, a cabbage, some more kohl rabi, about 20 marigolds, and around a dozen nasturtiums. PSB has gone into flower buckets as a holding area until the spuds are out and I have a bit of space. I think I've managed to kill both my cucumbers by overwatering them. :mad: I poured some water into the tray they were standing in, but forgot to drain it once they'd had a drink, so they sat in it for a few days. I've repotted them both to try and get them into something drier, but it'll be a miracle if they recover I think. Quite cross as these were freebies - one was a crystal lemon which I was looking forward to.

Potted up most of the chillies and the last few tomatoes, although I still have a few spares. The staging had to come out of the greenhouse as I now need the space for chillies and toms. Just about enough room for a couple of trays of bits and pieces.

No damage suffered from the wind, fortunately. One tomato kept slipping from its string support, so in the end I got fed up and stuck it in the greenhouse. It's back out again now.

Done a fair bit of weeding and general tidying up. All things considered, it's not looking too bad out there.

The forecast for the next fortnight is scattered showers. In between the showers there will be heavy rain. At any time that neither of these events are happening, there will be precipitation.

Hope everyone else is coping with the trials and tribulations that nature's throwing at us.

Little_Vics

emiff6 wrote: »

Hello all, been offline a while. Is this a new game? Does the one that gets closest win a prize

I'll go for 44

I'll place my bet at 42.

Pre-war_babe_33

He told me he was 43. You can easily work out how old I am - the clue is in my user-name.